The newest earnings outcomes from Microsoft additional justify its choice to port Xbox video games to PlayStation, with {hardware} income persevering with to drop.
The choice to deliver Xbox exclusives to PlayStation could have been met with some backlash from significantly religious Xbox followers, however it’s one which Microsoft is dedicated to.
It’s solely had just a few console exclusives up to now this 12 months, with the remainder of its line-up being multiplatform launches or PlayStation 5 ports. Just not too long ago, Forza Horizon 5 made the leap simply weeks after the Indiana Jones game arrived on Sony’s platform.
This technique is up to now paying off, with Microsoft’s latest earnings outcomes revealing that the firm ended its final fiscal quarter (January 2025 to March 2025) with the most pre-orders and pre-installs throughout both its personal storefront and the PlayStation Store.
Essentially, this implies PlayStation house owners are placing more-pre orders down for Microsoft printed video games than Sony ones, which solely additional justifies Microsoft’s choice to launch extra of its video games on PlayStation 5.
Granted, Microsoft has the benefit of proudly owning Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, both of that are accountable for extremely widespread franchises which have established audiences on PlayStation.
In truth, it’s the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and its Call Of Duty sequence that makes Microsoft the largest video game publisher on the planet.
Plus, Sony’s personal output for 2025 has been awfully dry up to now. In that January to March interval, the solely first social gathering console video games it had accessible for pre-order had been MLB The Show 25 and the Days Gone remaster (Ghost Of Yōtei pre-orders solely went reside final week).
Regardless, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella boasted the stats in an earnings call, including that with the Xbox Play Anywhere characteristic, over 1,000 video games can be found throughout console and PC.
Xbox’s cloud gaming characteristic additionally appears to be getting extra widespread, with it setting a brand new file of ‘150 million hours played for the first time this quarter.’
As for precise income, gaming income has gone up by 5%, whereas Xbox content material and companies income elevated by 8%, which Microsoft attributes to continued development for Call Of Duty, Minecraft, and Xbox Game Pass.
Revenue for PC Game Pass particularly has gone up by greater than 45%. Perhaps that’s the hottest possibility since Microsoft hasn’t touched on income for Game Pass on console.
Hardware income has continued to drop by 6%, however that’s hardly shocking when console sales have been flagging for ages now. It’s why Microsoft has begun releasing video games on PlayStation to start with although that doesn’t imply it’s abandoning {hardware} altogether.
Exact particulars stay imprecise, however Microsoft has been blatantly teasing a devoted Xbox handheld in addition to a new home console that will probably be the ‘biggest technological leap ever in a generation.’
What meaning is equally unclear. It definitely can’t confer with improved graphics since console visuals have frankly plateaued this era. It could have one thing to do with AI since Microsoft’s been going all in on the expertise.
Nadella even reiterated in the earnings name how AI is being built-in into Xbox with the Copilot for Gaming feature in addition to the firm’s plans to mechanically generate gameplay by way of its Muse AI model, a lot to the dismay of actual developers.
Xbox stands to have one other strong quarter due to the aforementioned PlayStation 5 launches of Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon 5, plus the remaster of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
Microsoft has not too long ago been going through requires a boycott by the Palestinian-led BDS motion for its ties to Israel, particularly for offering its cloud expertise and technical help as a part of the Gaza battle efforts (per a Guardian report). But it stays to be seen how a lot of an affect this may have on the firm.
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